NASCAR Watkins Glen Nationwide Series Race Preview

Ron Fellows circles road course races on the NASCAR calendar like holidays, primarily because they’ve been his greatest source of success.

The winding road at Watkins Glen International stands out in particular for the Windsor, Ontario native. Of his six combined wins in NASCAR Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series competition, all but one have come at the Glen.

Fellows, whose part-time NASCAR slate has been exclusively on road courses since 1999, will get another chance to taste stock-car victory in today’s Zippo 200 at The Glen (2:15 p.m. ET, ABC).

Fellows hasn’t won in NASCAR since 2008, when he captured the first national series race to be contested on rain tires in Montreal, and hasn’t prevailed at the Glen since 2001. He’ll be bringing the same JR Motorsports entry that he drove to a third-place finish at Road America in June.

“I feel very good about it. We had a strong car at Road America. We played catch-up the day following a flat tire, then we had an issue in the pits just trying to fix some radios,” Fellows said. “But, you know, Watkins Glen, we’ve had great success at the Glen. It’s a track that suits my driving style. Yeah, it’s like a second home. Really enjoy racing there.”

Fellows is one of several road-racing part-timers on the 48-driver Watkins Glen entry list who will provide subplot to the Nationwide Series’ points chase, which remains a four-car breakaway.

Elliott Sadler, who locked down his fourth win of the season last weekend in Iowa, continues to set the pace, with Richard Childress Racing teammate Austin Dillon 18 points back in second place. Defending series champ Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is 21 points off the top in third with Sam Hornish Jr., last week’s winner of the final Dash 4 Cash $100,000 bonus, 34 points behind Sadler in fourth.